Floating on faith

Rachel is learning to swim. She’s not afraid to go under water. She’s not afraid to jump in. Her confidence is greater than her skills.

But she doesn’t want to stay still when she’s supposed to be floating. She gets in position to float, and then wiggles around, which forces her to sink. Instead of surrendering to stillness that brings control in the water, she wants to take the action into her own hands, which actually gives her less control over her body.

Sometimes I’m like that with my faith.

Instead of being still and letting God work through me, I want to fix and do and plan and control. But God has been teaching me about living rescued and resting in faith.

“Rush always leads to ruin. … Everything is instant approval, immediate gratification, and that always leads to ruin. What I’m trying to figure out is if I trust God with the pace, then I can I can actually live from rest and I can get to the reward God has promised me, which by the way, is always Jesus.”

This is what’s hard right now for me: Besides not knowing what I should do more times than I care to admit, parenting exposes all my own sin, which is just plain hard, especially when I’ve got a family depending on me.

I need to let God change my defense mechanisms. Naturally, I want to fight it — everything — which can come across as mean and cold when really I’m just afraid and uncertain. I want to move faster and bark orders like I’m in the one in control and rush any soul work God is in the midst of doing.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

I fight the wrong enemy with human words rather than the spiritual battles with Christ. On bad days, I fight my son’s behavior instead of teaching his heart, choose to worry about what might happen instead of trusting the God I know, and allow frustrations to replace truth.

I need to sink into what I know to be true,
stretch out my arms, and float on faith.

It’s been one of those seasons where everything I read and hear is coming back to this lesson in living rescued, in floating in faith. Here are the some of the resources that have been encouraging and teaching me:

Comments

I’m learning that exact same lesson right now, Kristin. I’m still asking, seeking, and knocking, but God is teaching me how to do it from a position of trust rather than striving. It’s a hard lesson to learn after decades of high achieving, but I know He will teach me well.

It’s amazing how the study is teaching us to live from a position of trusting God rather than trying to keep ourselves afloat. Precious how we learn through our children. I have often said they grow us up In Christ as they themselves are growing up 🙂

God is using so many things to encourage me to trust God, and not keep myself afloat. But, goodness, my natural tendencies distract me sometimes. I’m thankful for his grace again and again. I’m thankful for your encouragement during this season especially. xo.

“I fight the wrong enemy with human words rather than the spiritual battles with Christ.”

This stood out likely because I just finished a study of Ephesians and have also been reading a book that speaks to this too.

I’ve been thinking of you lots as I dive back into writing and as I read different articles. One recently on Facebook and finding a community group to be part of… of course I thought of yours. Not sure why I’m hesitating to jump back in (groups, link ups, etc). But again, when I think of both I think of the beautiful communities you have formed.

I love Ephesians, and it’s come up often in my life lately. I love that you’re writing again. I hope to connect more with you soon – online and in real life. You’re welcome here always, but I think you already know that. Love you, friend. xo

“Red Sea Road” is such a stellar album. I cannot get enough of it…and it truly got me through last Spring/summer when I unexpectedly had job change in my life etc. I need to listen to that Tauren Wells podcast. I have heard such great things about it.

This is true for me too, Kristin: “For me, resting in faith often means slowing down.” I haven’t been very good at it lately. This season of life isn’t allowing rest in big ways, so I’m having to snatch it in smaller chunks. 🙂

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About Me

Telling stories is my therapy and love sharing with friends on my porch.

The main characters in my stories are my entrepreneur husband, our fifth-grade girl who never forgets, our have-no-fear second-grade boy, and our joy-filled toddler girl. As we live out our stories, we seek God as the author of them all.